A bit of bad luck for Sharks says Plumtree
Today at 04:22 AM
LISTEN as the Sharks head coach John Plumtree lamented his side's lack of accuracy and bad luck with injuries in their Champions Cup defeat to French giants Toulouse.
The defending Champions Cup title holders Toulouse continued their European dominance with a 20-8 win over Sharks at Kings Park on Saturday.
The Round Three match was billed as the clash of the weekend - Champions Cup title holder v Challenge Cup title holders
However Toulouse captained by France star Antoine Dupont, quickly showed why they are regarded as one the best clubs in world rugby.
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While Toulouse's win came as no surprise, the manner in which they performed showed the huge strides South African teams have to take to compete in the elite tournament.
It was a very scrappy affair, but the visitors proved to handle the humid conditions better than the hosts throughout the match.
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In his assessment of the match, Sharks head coach John Plumtree revealed his side was just not accurate enough during the Round three clash against the sixth-timed Champions Cup winners.
"You can see they are a class outfit," Plumtree said, adding: "Just the way they can apply pressure not just through their defence and setpiece, but their continuity play, attack and the ability to keep the ball alive is what makes them so dangerous.
"We just couldn't hold on to the ball for long enough to apply the pressure that we needed to. We were a bit loose which is a bit disappointing for me.
"We talked about it at halftime, if we can hold onto the ball for longer periods and put them under pressure. I think we did that in the last 20 minutes and they started defending.
"So proud of the effort just not accurate enough."
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The coach said a full-strength Sharks would have 'made things more interesting'.
Springbok trio Eben Etzebeth, Andre Esterhuizen and Aphelele Fassi missed the match due to injury, while Grant Williams was absent due to a family bereavement.
"I don't want to discredit players we did have out there. Everyone tried really hard but it is obviously a little bit disrupting with losing players every week due to injuries.
"It just shows with this calendar season the squad has to be top quality.
"We have six to seven key players out at the moment and they would make a massive difference to our team."
The coach said Toulouse has shown them the level they need to be at to compete in the Euro competitions.
"We will always look to make our team better. It's only my second season back and I don't want to discredit the players because everyone tried their hearts out.
"However to do well in URC and Champions Cup you need a quality squad.
"We are building towards that, but it is something that we will work on over the years.
"We just had a bit of bad luck with key players like Eben, Vincent Koch struggling to get back into the form he had last year because of injuries, Bongi - broke his hand - his first game back, Ox Nche has been playing a lot of rugby.
"Losing guys like Emile van Heerden and Gebrandt Grobberlaar, guys that are senior players so we look forward to when we have those guys available."
The defeat has put the Sharks in a very risky position heading into the final pool round - where they will need to travel to France to face Bordeaux-Begles this coming weekend.
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